First Term Reflections

Our first term of the 2012 - 2013 is drawing to a close.  Report cards have been issued, parent-teacher interviews are being held this week, and we are all reflecting on how the first three months of school have gone.  I am pleased to say that despite all of the new things we have experienced this year (100 new students, 10 new teachers, for example), the tone in the school and on the playground is very positive.  I am seeing students engaged, teachers excited about projects and technology and collaborating with one another.  I am also seeing many acts of kindness and generosity, such as students and teachers sharing supplies and knowledge with one another, parents donating their time to our school to fundraise, serve lunches and run clubs, bus drivers encouraging and supporting children, custodians caring about our school environment, and our educational assistants taking the time to build relationships with students and teachers.  We have a good place to learn and to be.

In other learning news, last weekend, most of our French Immersion students took part in the Squamish Culture and Heritage Festival at Quest University.  We were able to preview the projects that the students prepared on Wednesday afternoon.  Very impressive!

Felicitations to all!

Last week I attended a workshop in West Vancouver on The Daily 5 approach to teaching reading and writing.  This approach, created my two American teachers,  is truly a juggernaut, rolling through North American schools, embraced by teachers who want a more effective, efficient, engaging way to teach students to read and write, self-regulate and own their own learning.  I am very impressed with the work that is being done in not only West Vancouver classrooms, but in our own Sea to Sky District.  Many teachers are really ready to practice in a way that appeals to the 21st century child.

We now look forward to all that December brings: our annual Writing Day, the Band and Primary Christmas Concerts,  classroom celebrations and gingerbread-house building madness!  We hope you will be able to attend one or more of these celebrations.



Last Year's Christmas Band Concert



Happy New Year!



Terry Fox Warm Up

 September always seems more like New Year's to me than January 1st.  I guess it is partly because I've spent the last 43 years living according to an academic calendar.  Our school year started off with a lot of change.  We have over 100 new students and 10 new teachers.  We have one new Vice-Principal, Sue Reed, and one new Educational Assistant, Barb Clarke.  That is a lot of newness!  But in the midst of all that newness there are "anchors" that keep us grounded, so to speak.  Some of these anchors are the traditions, the rituals and celebrations that happen every September. 

There is the Terry Fox Run, before which teachers spend a great deal of time reminding students who Terry is, what he did, and why we should keep his dream and his memory alive.



Cross Country Running team at BES





Our Roots of Empathy Baby, Lucas, is bigger than Baby Apple.

 Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope certainly inspires our Cross Country Team, another autumn tradition.  It was wonderful for Mrs. Heilig and me to see so many (60+) students come out to practices and to the three meets.  We think the students learned more than just how to strategically run the trails.  We think they learned about courage, sportsmanship, determination, and empathy.

Speaking of empathy, our little Roots of Empathy baby, Lucas, came to meet his Wondergarten Class (Mrs. Yates).  He is going to teach the students about how we care for the most vulnerable, and how we are all vulnerable and must look after each other.  Have you read Mary Gordon's book, Roots of Empathy?  You really should.

This week we are looking forward to another tradition, the Hallowe'en Carnival.  This annual event, run by parents and volunteers, raises a lot of money for our school.  This year, we hope to put some money towards the installation of a new playground for our students, and for the community.

Spooky, I know!

Finally, we are looking forward to the beginning of a new tradition:  WE Day.  Twenty-two of our grade 7's, all of whom applied last June, will be attending WE Day at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, with 20,000 other youth and their supervisors.  WE Day is an initiative of Free the Children, an international organization with Canadian roots.  Our students will hopefully feel empowered and inspired to actions that make the world a better place.  Thanks to Mrs. Verbeek for organizing.

The fall is a season of change and new beginnings, just as much as spring is.  I'm looking forward to the year ahead and all that we can learn in 2012 - 2013.



Configurations for Learning

A Beautiful Multiage Class:  Can you tell the 2's from the 3's?

As always in June, I begin to wonder what challenges and opportunities the next school year will bring.  As I plan for staffing, ordering planners, replenishing art and gym equipment, I am thinking ahead to that first week of September, when we configure classes and try to make the best placement decisions possible for each individual student. 

When we sit down to create classes, we try to balance multiple factors, regardless of the grade levels.  Teachers are teaching children, not grades, and as such, we look most carefully at the social, emotional, and academic profiles of the students.  Combined classes are a reality.  Research (eg. Veenman (1995); Mason and Burns (1996) has not found multiage classrooms to have detrimental effect on student achievement.  In fact, it is argued that students will achieve more if teachers are able to capitalize on the multi-age arrangement. 

We know, through such meta-analyses of educational research as John Hattie’s Visible Learning, that what does have a huge impact on student learning are strategies such as students self-reporting their on their own performance, small group learning, teachers providing feedback and coaching rather than “marking,” and reciprocal teaching (when students teach each other).  Also, incredibly important, obviously, is the teacher-student relationship.  I do not remember whether I was in a combined class in Grade 7, but I sure remember Mr. Nelmes, who, in sharing his passion for reading and writing and history, and with his wonderful kindness and compassion, inspired me to become a teacher.

As I’ve mentioned before, curriculum in BC is changing, becoming more about big ideas, deeper learning, focusing on critical thinking, creativity, communication, personal and social responsibility.  In the future, we will focus less on what grade a student is in, and more on these competencies and learning standards; less on whole-class instruction of the same thing and more on personalized learning; less on tests and percentages and more on authentic assessment; more choice, more opportunities for each learner to show what they know in an innovative way.

Change is not easy.  People resist it.  But it is necessary if public education is going to succeed.  One of my reflective teachers recently said, “I want to work next year with you as a team to help build community in the class.  I can’t rely on the students to comply simply because I am the adult in the room.  Kids are different now.”  I agreed.  Students are powerful, independent, sometimes have a sense of entitlement, and are very savvy.  They will teach us about technology as we go. We can model ethical and safe use of technology.  If we can let go a little of the need to control students, and coach them as all people want to be coached, with kindness, encouragement and helpful feedback, we will deserve their respect and appreciation.

To return to class configuration, for any parents reading this, we base our student-placement decisions as much as we can on exactly what I think you’d want us to:  each child’s social, emotional and academic needs.  We thank you for your trust.

Curriculum Changes

As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course…

Wikipedia

My Oxford English Dictionary defines curriculum as “the subjects that are studied or prescribed for study in a school.”  But somehow the race course seems like a more appropriate description.  Our current BC Curricula are so jam-packed with prescribed learning outcomes, that it requires a Herculean effort to teach to them all in one school year.  Many teachers fear that if they do not cover the length and breadth of the curriculum that they will be both letting down the students and next year’s teacher.  This statement is often overheard: “I do not have time for _________ as I have too much curriculum to cover.”

Sadly, what students remember most about school are not such curricular minutia as “explain the properties of 0 and 1 for multiplication, and the property of 1 for division” or “describe key characteristics of the justice system in Canada.”  They remember experiences, relationships and the opportunities they had to solve problems, be critical thinkers, be creative and playful and active.

            Last week, some colleagues and I attended an afternoon session with some folks from the Ministry of Education, to hear about some changes that are in the works!  We know that deep learning requires more time and “space” than rote memorization and regurgitation of facts.  The changes to the curriculum are going to include reducing the size, creating space to allow creative uses, focusing on competencies, concepts, and big ideas and organizing the learning around standards, which are key skills.  Each curriculum will weave these five competencies throughout:  Communication, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking and Innovation, Personal Responsibility and Social Responsibility.

            So what will that look like in plain English?  We were shown a sample of a grade seven science curriculum.  It fit on one page.  There were four big ideas about Scientific Inquiry, Life Science, Physical Science and Earth Science.  Below each big idea statement were three learning standards, such as a student being able to collect evidence, design and carry out experiments, and make some evidence-based conclusions.  Of course, the web-based curriculum will have links to resources, ideas for cross-curricular integration, and so on, but the One Page Overview was clean, concise, and very teacher-student-parent friendly.

            I am confident that this brave, new approach will bring our teaching and learning into the 21^st century and will prepare our children well for the future.  Hopefully, our children will be the innovators who use their thinking skills to reverse global warming, solve the pine beetle problem, put an end to poverty and homelessness, and celebrate world peace!

Learning to Read

One of the best things about being a principal is regularly having proud primary students come to my office to read to me.  I witness joy on their faces when they connect letters to sounds and to words and words into sentences that go with the pictures on the page.  For some children it happens sooner than for others.  And that is okay.  Too often we fret when a student is not "at benchmark" at a certain time in the school year, but why is learning to read any different than any other skill?  It takes time and practice.

Any you have to want to do it! Nothing could be worse than being made to practice something that doesn't feel good over and over, all day long!  For me, it would be like someone was forcing me to play video games all day:  I don't care about them, they do not interest me, I find them boring and pointless.  Flip that around and imagine the child who is addicted to video games, and does not want to read.  Yet we know that reading is an important life skill that improves one's chances of success in other areas of the curriculum and in later in employment opportunities. (Video games - not so much, in my opinion)

One of my earliest memories is being three or four years old.  My mum and little brother and I had been to the public library and come home with a stack of picture books. Harry the Dirty Dog, Curious George, Millions of Cats and The Funny Thing were some of our favourites.  The sun shone in on our backs as we sat on either side of my mum while she read book after book.  There was and atmosphere of love, peace, and curiosity as each story unfolded, some familiar, some new. We loved listening to her read, and did not even realize that we were learning to read, too.

At school, there are many times that we can create similar warm and caring reading experiences with students.  We can help them make predictions, ask questions about what they have read, make connections with characters, and finish a book wanting more.  If this can happen at home, too, it is a recipe for success.  We want children to learn to read, then read to learn, and read for pleaseure, too.  If we model this for them in our own daily habits, we will create a community of readers.

By the way, many of our parents are reading the same novels as our students, finding them just as enjoyable and addictive as any adult literature.  If you love reading and want to join our lunchtime book club, please know that parents are most welcome.  We started off with The Hunger Games series, but are now discussing all kinds of novels, and are ready to choose a new book to all read together.  The Book Club meets Wednesdays at 12:15 in Room 149.

Do Letter Grades Matter?

Is this true, Alfie?

A few years ago, I was taking summer course at UBC as part of my Master's degree.  The professor, while quite young, was certainly "old school" in his assessment practices.  I got back an essay I'd submitted and the only thing he'd written on the paper when he handed it back was "84%."  No notes, no feedback, nothing more than that 84 percent. There was criteria, no rubric, not even a hint given of what he was looking for.  I thought, "This must be all I am capable of.  Otherwise he would have made suggestions.  I am a B!"  I pondered that a while, then realized how silly I was being.  A grade on an essay cannot define who you are - or can it?

Recently, after hearing a parent complain about the lack of a report card from her child's teacher, although she conceded that she knew she could speak to the teacher anytime to get an update, I began to wonder if the students themselves are missing formal reports. (As part of the BCTF strike, teachers are not writing reports.)

I decided to interview some intermediate students.  I started by asking, kind of tongue in cheek, "If you are not getting report cards, why are you working?"  Here are some of their replies:

I'm working just in case the strike ends and we get report cards.
I want to get smarter and go to college and get a good job.
I want to learn more.
We are still getting marks on our work.
I like school.
I want to avoid being in trouble.
So I can go to the next grade.

Next, I asked, "If your teacher were to write a report card today, do you think you know what grades you would get?"

No, I don't know.
I think so, but I'm not 100% sure.
I think I'm failing, but my Mum doesn't care because I'm moving next year.


"Do marks cause you anxiety?"


Yes, I get grounded if my marks aren't good.
I get paid for good letter grades.
Yes, if my mark is below 70%.  But that is a C, which is "satisfactory."   Not at my house!
I needed a report card to apply for a scholarship to a private school, and because I did not get one, I could not apply.

As you can see, there was a range of opinions expressed about report cards and assessment. I now have more questions rattling around in my brain:

Are we using report cards like carrots and sticks?
Do they really tell a parent, or next year's teacher, about the student's progress and their potential?
Is there a better way we could be communicating this information?
Do report cards help students learn?
Do they contribute to the Matthew affect - where the "poor get poorer and the rich get richer?"

Author and educational researcher Alfie Kohn shares this bit of wisdom:

A student asked his Zen master how long it would take to reach enlightenment.  “Ten years,” the master said.  But, the student persisted, what if he studied very hard?  “Then 20 years,” the master responded.  Surprised, the student asked how long it would take if he worked very, very hard and became the most dedicated student in the Ashram.  “In that case, 30 years,” the master replied.  His explanation:  “If you have one eye on how close you are to achieving your goal, that leaves only one eye for your task.”

To read more about Kohn's ideas on grading and assessment, visit his website www.alfiekohn.org

And let me know what your memories of school and grades are, good, bad or ugly.


 
 
 

Looking Forward

Even though we still have six months left in this school year, we are starting to think ahead to NEXT year, with the imminent registration for Kindergarten and Grade 5 French Immersion.  Even though our school has grown by over one hundred students and will continue to grow, I think we have maintained our small school feel, and welcomed our new students and families into our school community.

In his academic writing, John McKnight, professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, describes five indicators of community.  The first is Capacity, which can be described as, "the extent to which an enterprise or a nation, or an organization like a school,  actually uses its potential output."  It is, perhaps, our most important to work:  to build capacity in the students in in ourselves as teachers.  How can we tap into human potential most effectively, so that all learners feel themselves to be growing socially, emotionally, physically and academically?  That is our most pressing question.

The second indicator of community is Collective Effort.  There are countless examples of people working together in our school, from the teachers collaboration and sharing, to the students working and learning together, to the members of the basketball team practicing their game along with their coaches.  Humans are meant to work together - they are small group beings - as Johnston and Johnston put it.

The third indicator is Informality.  We are informal when we play and laugh together, when we sing and make music, when we are good and caring listeners.  While we cling to some formal structures and manners and rituals in schools, there are still many opportunities to be informal with one another.  Students appreciate having choices and flexibility in their learning, as much as the adults like to have autonomy in how and what they teach.  In some other countries, the curriculum and expectations for its delivery are so rigid and oppressive, I cannot imagine how there can be much joy in teaching or learning.

Stories are the fourth indicator.  Personally, I think that learning is ALL about stories.  Sometimes they are subtle, embedded, or simply implied, like in the teaching of Pythagorus' Theorum or why the English language is as quirky as it is.  But more often, the stories are right in front of us: in picture books, in novels, for sure, but also in history and science and math and technology.  We tell each other stories all the time - it is how we engage, entertain, persuade, influence, and conflict with one another.  And what are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves?  I wonder about this all the time, like when a student comes to the office for misbehaviour, or when they do poorly on a test or assignment, do they tell themselves, "This is who I am and always will be" or have we helped them know that it is okay to make mistakes, and nurture better, more optimistic outlooks?

The fifth indicator of community is celebration.  It's kind of sad that we sometimes have to remind ourselves to celebrate.  It seems easier sometimes to focus on what is NOT working.  Why is that?As Goldie Hahn says in her MindUp Curriculum, we want to "equip our children with the skills they need to live smarter, healthier, and happier lives.  Together we will create optimistic classrooms where children successfully cope with the stresses they face in school, at home, and in their communities." 

It's hard to be optimistic when we hear so much bad news and sad stories in the news.  But thank you for being the kind of people who support and encourage another, as we have seen in recent times of loss and crisis.  That is definitely something to celebrate.